Here is Esther-an orphan and by all accounts, a nobody, turned into queen and royalty. After a conspiring plot to destroy the Jews, her only family, Mordecai who is also Jewish, challenges Esther.
“Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” –Esther 4:13-14
Esther is now faced with a life altering decision: approach King Xerxes and consequently risk her life to save that of her people, the Jews, or stay silent in the palace and watch their destruction. She either has to rise and use her position as royalty, or become a bystander and neglect what’s in her God-given power to do. The choice seems rather obvious in a story stuck in the Old Testament, except it’s our story and our daily choice as well, and we are not always so obviously open to risking our lives.
Esther was put in position as queen, orchestrated by a God who always sees the Big Picture. To just sit on the throne, propped up and looking lovely? To gossip with her maidservants in the king’s court? No. Esther was brought from rags to royalty for a purpose: to further God’s plan, to play an irreplaceable role. What if she had told Mordecai she did not want to risk her life? What if she did choose to just sit and watch and wait for nothing?
What if we tell God we don’t want to risk our lives for the purpose He’s created us for, and the position He’s divinely put us in? I think we would miss out on the extraordinary, and on the thrilling, heart pumping journey He has in mind for us. For you! Because you are you for a beautiful and defining reason. How amazing is it to not have to force ourselves to fit into anything, but only flow in the rhythm of who He’s made us to be?
So why are you, you? People die every day; why are you alive today? It’s not for yourself, it’s not so you can be propped up looking lovely on Instagram, it’s not so you can be a bystander and neglect your God-given power. We are to have a genuine relationship with God that’s full of loving Him and loving others; to have our character become more and more like Jesus. We are to be in the family business! And we are to produce not only physically, but spiritually as well.
William Barclay wrote, “there are two great days in a person’s life-the day we are born and they day we discover why.” So when we focus our energy on God, when we take seriously who He says we are, and start to love the thrilling fact that when we became His, our lives were already put on the line, I think we will begin to live out our “second great day.”
And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?